Texas Threatens Legal Action Against Nonprofit Aiding Syrian Refugees

The Texas health and human services commissioner said the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Dallas is ignoring a directive to relocate Syrians somewhere other than Texas. The state wanted assurances Monday from the agency that it will not accept Syrian refugees and threatened legal action if Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s orders are defied.

The IRC, a nonprofit that’s based in New York and runs a program in the metroplex, has given no indication that it will change course and relocate Syrian refugees somewhere other than Texas. Phone and email messages to the group were not immediately returned.

Abbott is among nearly two dozen governors, mostly Republicans, who have vowed to block efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in their states following the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris.